Muslim Basketball

Such an odd team. One week they look liked absolute contenders playing great team basketball on both ends, and then we get the Yaqob show and its everyone get out of the way. In honor of 8/23 being Kobe Bryant’s birthday, Yaqob hoisted 24 shots to honor the late great. Unfortunately for Damascus (and fortunately for Kabul) he only connected on six of those attempts. Sal and Yo shah need to be more involved if this team wants to even sniff the chance of advancing in the playoffs. 

Now I know they just lost to what seemed to be the worst team in the league, and badly, but to me, this just seems like one of those extremely tough nights where it seems impossible to get going. They've been competitive in every game, no game won or lost by double digits, so the evidence leads to the conclusion that this one week was an outlier. There was nothing good to show from this game, just got to be this week's Lagos, accept it, learn from it, and come back swinging next week. This squad has too much talent and has proven too much to be placed any lower.

Talk about a day and night. Muj really did put his Danny Ainge cap for this one and turned their season around. Acquiring Sal and Yusef has been nothing short of excellent for Damascus as they secured the double overtime win against Lagos. After a disastrous week 3, Yaqob returned to MVP form as he stuffed the stat sheet with 22, 11, 2, 1 and 2. His presence downlow was the difference in this game Yo Shah ended the thriller with an AND-1 as he walked off and hugged his big brother as they shared a proud moment together.

Sloppy win, but nonetheless they no longer have a zero in the win column. Led by Sal and Yousef, Damascus hit timely shots down the stretch. It also helps when you attempt 14 more FT’s than your opponent. If this team wants to keep momentum going, Yaqob must learn to defer and not be as ball dominant. Newly acquired Yusef Elmonayery added 8 points and 10 rebounds and played a role in their first win.

Unfortunately Muj is shutting it down for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. One player can’t replace Muj but adding his brother to the roster will certainly help. Yaqob with another strong performance of 22 and 10 but they just came up short. They finish games strong, but they need to figure out a way to keep it close from the jump.

The final three spots are really a toss-up but Damascus’ best player is playing on one knee. Thanks to their supporting cats they still managed to keep it close, until the closing minutes. Yaqob and Aymen combined for 35 points out of the team’s 56 but they looked extremely ball dominant. Welcome back Yahya Gordon after a bit of a hiatus. If him and Muj can reclaim some of their magic, Damascus won’t be losing many games.

Mujataba passed up on a lot of elite guards to select his guy Aymen but who am I to question the MB legend. Aymen is a one-man fast break and can average 15 and 10 in his sleep. Yaqob will add shooting and size and if Yahya Gordon is anything close to what he was when we last saw him, jeez that’s a title contender. Did I mention that Muj is on the team?